Thomas Walker was a distinguished physician and explorer from Virginia.
Background
Thomas Walker was born in King and Queen County, Va. His ancestors are supposed to have emigrated from Staffordshire, England, to tidewater Virginia in the middle of the seventeenth century. Certain it is that his father died in his youth and that he went to live in Williamsburg with his sister, Mary Peachy, who had married the senior Dr. George Gilmer.
Education
He is believed to have received his education at the College of William and Mary, but there is uncertainty in both cases. In Williamsburg he acquired a knowledge of medicine.
Career
He removed to Fredericksburg, where he practised for some years, acquiring eminence in the field of surgery. His pupil, William Baynham, bore witness to the excellence of his training. He also kept a general store and carried on importing and exporting operations. Through his marriage he acquired about 11, 000 acres of land in the present Albemarle County, known as the "Castle Hill" estate. This was the foundation of his fortune. His trading operations probably carried him to the valley of Virginia, for soon he had valuable connections in that section. In 1748 he made one of a company of prominent western land speculators who explored the southern end of the Virginia valley and staked out rich claims for themselves under a grant made to one of the associates. A large tract surrounding the present town of Abingdon came into Walker's possession in this manner. In 1749 the Loyal Land Company was organized on the basis of a grant of 800, 000 acres from the Council of Virginia, and Walker became its chief agent. In 1750 he led a party of explorers westward to spy out their lands. The journal he kept on this occasion is well known and marks him as the first white man to have made a recorded expedition to the Kentucky country. Unfortunately for his associates, he failed to reach the green meadows of the blue grass country. In 1752 he made his first appearance in the Virginia House of Burgesses, but during the same year he was commissioned deputy surveyor of Augusta County and relinquished his seat. In 1755 he became commissary-general to the Virginia troops serving under George Washington in the French war, and was present at the memorable defeat of Braddock. Charges were brought against him in the House of Burgesses in 1759 by Thomas Johnson of Louisa County that his commissary accounts were irregular. He was absolved from the charges of fraud, but it appears that he had contracted a secret partnership in the supply business with Andrew Lewis, an associate in land speculations and a commander of the troops Walker supplied. In 1756 Walker was back in the House of Burgesses, this time as a member from the frontier county of Hampshire, which he continued to represent until 1761. The place of his residence during the years since 1748 is something of a mystery. It is certain that he carried on business operations in Louisa as early as 1754, and it is likely that the commissary business took him to Hampshire, which lies across the Potomac from the strategic point of Cumberland, Md. Though not necessarily the case, it is probably true that he resided in these respective counties during the years he represented them in the legislature. In 1761 he sat for the first time for Albemarle County; in 1763 he was a commissioner to sell lots in Charlottesville, the new county seat. In 1768 Walker represented Virginia at the important Indian treaty at Fort Stanwix. The next year he signed the non-importation agreement and thereafter took an important part in the revolutionary movement. In 1775 he was named one of a commission to negotiate with the Ohio Indians at Pittsburgh, and in 1776 was a member of the Virginia Committee of Safety. When the state government was organized in that year, he became a member of the executive council. In 1779 he headed the Virginia commission which extended the North Carolina-Virginia boundary to the westward. Daniel Smith was also a member of the commission. Having completed this service, he was again a member of the Council but declined reappointment in 1781. The following year he ended his public career by representing Albemarle in the House of Delegates. Here he served on a committee appointed to vindicate Virginia's claim to western lands. He died at the age of seventy-nine and was buried at "Castle Hill. "
Achievements
Personality
In 1765 he built the homestead on the "Castle Hill" estate. From this time forward he made his home at "Castle Hill, " where he was a neighbor of Peter Jefferson, and later acted as guardian for his son Thomas.
Connections
In 1741 he was married to Mildred Thornton, the widow of Nicholas Meriwether and a relative of George Washington. His first wife died on November 16, 1778, and sometime thereafter he married her cousin, Elizabeth Thornton. By his first wife he had twelve children, most of whom married into prominent Virginian families and two of whom, John and Francis, attained distinction, the former serving as United States senator and the latter as a member of the federal House of Representatives.